In life, everybody sets goals for themselves.  In route to these goals, hardships and obstacles are common and expected.  It is not the obstacles that define a person, but rather how they handle them and move on to accomplish their goals.  With some determination and perseverance, these roadblocks can propel a person even closer to their overall goals.

Meet Noel Romey.  Noel, 32, lives with his wife and their 18-month-old son, Julian, in Midlothian, Virginia.  He has a Master’s degree from the University of Arkansas in chemical engineering, and he is employed by the Department of Defense.  Needless to say, he leads a very successful life.  However, life has been full of adjustments and overcoming obstacles for Noel.

Noel has been completely blind since birth, and his bones are extremely fragile, easily breaking on even the smallest falls. However, Noel hasn’t let his handicaps hold him back from pursuing his dreams.

“I definitely think that blindness, for me, has been an opportunity. It has helped me to realize that everybody haspotential…Everybody can get things done if they are determined.  That’s what I’ve done, is gotten things done and gotten what I wanted to get done because I am determined to do that.” Noel Romey, blind chemical engineer

He doesn’t just pursue dreams that benefit himself, however.  Because of his handicaps, Noel has developed a heart for helping those in similar situations.  One of his hobbies is computer programming, and he wanted to integrate that into helping others, leading him to the idea of developing iPhone applications for the visually impaired.

“My initial idea would be to write applications to play games,” he said with a slight smile and a sense of joy in his voice.  “There’s all kinds of games that you would have on your phone for sighted people, but there’s really not many that blind people can use, and I would like to make some that would be fun for me to play, and would also be useable by other people.”

From the outside, it seems that Noel Romey has had anything but a normal life because of his difficulties, but after closer inspection, it is easy to see that he has taken the cards that have been dealt to him and made the most of them.  Noel lives as living proof that everybody has the potential to reach their goals, and everybody has potential.